Original Meaning
The Heading (87:0)
WE RETURN TO THE KORAHITE psalms that, along with the Asaph grouping, characterize the bulk of Book 3, thus suggesting an origin for the Korahite collection in Israel’s public worship during the Second Temple period. Otherwise, the poem is described using the common designations of “Psalm” and “Song.” As discussed elsewhere, these titles probably indicate compositions that are intended to be sung as part of the community’s public worship.1
The position of Psalm 87 in Book 3 is interesting. The poem seems to arise naturally out of the eschatological, international, and missionary vision of Psalm 86:8–10. Psalm 87 consolidates this vision with the imagery of adoption. The nations normally thought of as being Israel’s enemies are described as having been born in Zion, thus including them in the community of faith. This development is truly fascinating in terms of the Psalms’ theological representation of the nations.
Bridging Contexts
ZION IN THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION. Psalm 87 is another example of a Zion psalm, as are Psalms 46, 48, and 84 (discussed above). Each of these songs holds Jerusalem in high regard—to an extent, in fact, that is almost mythical in tone. They each celebrate Zion’s exalted status. Some point to her military impenetrability as a fortress or refuge. Most celebrate the worship of Yahweh practiced in the temple city. But one thing is common to most of the Zion psalms, namely, that the city of God is central to Yahweh’s plans for and governance of the whole earth. In the case of Psalm 87, Zion’s significance is painted in terms of love and inclusion. The gates of the city—that is, its inhabitants (v. 2)—are loved by God. The city is the focus of his affection and blessing more than any other place, even other places in Israel. But that love is inclusive rather than exclusive. So many of the tabernacle/temple rituals outlined in Leviticus and elsewhere are actually about exclusion. Such is the amazing holiness of Yahweh that only through cleansing sacrifice could one approach the presence of God. All sorts of issues, both moral (sin of any type) and practical (e.g., the eating of shellfish [Deut 14:10]), excluded one from entering the holy presence of God Almighty. But the tone of Psalm 87 is quite the opposite—it is all about inclusion. It is about the people who were normally excluded from worship becoming part of the worshiping family of God. As so often in the Psalter, Zion is central to that act of inclusion. It is there that the nations receive their adoption as citizens of a new kingdom. The peoples are declared to have been born there (vv. 4, 6). Zion is the necessary and unique place of that rebirth and new citizenship.
It is entirely understandable that the early church began to read the significance of Zion in terms of the events that occurred in the city through the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It was in Zion that Jesus overturned the money lenders’ tables in the temple. It was in the courts of the same complex of buildings that he taught the people, debated with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, walked and talked with the disciples, people watched and used the events he saw as teaching illustrations. It was to Jerusalem that Jesus led his disciples with great purpose and determination, even though he knew that the great city would also be the place of his death. It was outside the city walls that he was nailed to a tree and killed—and outside the walls of Jerusalem that the grave could not hold him. It was in that selfsame city that the church of Christ was born and began to grow. So, it is not surprising that Christians of the early centuries would view the significance of the Zion psalms in terms of the Christ event.
But clearly the Zion psalms meant something to the people of God throughout the generations before the coming of Christ. Where did that meaning lie when the reality of Jerusalem’s history fell far short of the exalted status celebrated in these poems?
To understand the meaning of the Zion psalms for the original readers of the Psalter, we must consider these poems in the light of their history of appropriation. Some of the poems celebrating Zion probably date from the time of Kings David and Solomon, when Israel was a relatively major player on the stage of the ancient Near East, and these psalms would have borne some similarity to the transnational, political reality of the day. Jerusalem was the capital of the Davidic nation, and that nation was not to be trifled with. So, the significance of Zion would be read in the light the political and military realities of the day. But even for a reader in the days of David and Solomon there would still have been an element of dissonance—Jerusalem was great . . . but the nations were not flocking there by the thousands, nor was it the seat of rule over all the countries of the earth, as implied in Psalm 2. So even for readers of the Zion psalms during the height of Jerusalem’s significance, there would have been a degree of surprise at the highly effusive language used to describe the significance of the city.
This surprise would reach the realms of disbelief in the historical period that followed the death of Solomon and the division of Israel. For believers singing the Zion psalms at that time, the theology and imagery of these poems would have stood in marked contrast to the geopolitical reality of the day. Effectively, Judah was a bit-part player on the world stage and entirely dominated by superpowers to the south (Egypt) and north (Assyria, then Babylon). The songs that celebrate the impregnability of Zion would have sounded hollow in the light of the military dominance of Israel’s and Judah’s near neighbors. How then would believers in the days after the death of Solomon but before the exile read psalms such as Psalm 87? It seems clear that they would have read these psalms with an attitude of future expectation. The Zion psalms did not resonate with the Hebrews’ current experience, so the people would have read them in the belief that Zion’s significance would rise again at some point in the future.
This proleptic rereading would become all the more common in the years following the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Ideas regarding the impregnability of the city and Yahweh’s rule over the whole world from Jerusalem bore no similarity to Zion’s historical and political reality; therefore, the community of faith would have read these psalms with a forward-looking attitude of mind. The Zion psalms bore little resemblance to the Hebrews’ present reality, so they came to be read with a sense of future expectation.11
Thus it is not surprising that early Christian readers of these poems read them as descriptive of the life and events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth played out in the city of Jerusalem. While the Zion psalms may not originally have been “about Jesus,” all the psalms lend themselves to reinterpretation by each succeeding generation, and, even at the height of Zion’s fame, Psalm 87 would probably have been read by Old Testament believers as referring to future climactic events through which Yahweh would transform the world.12
Certainly in later years Psalm 87—which is probably postexilic in origin—would have been read with a sense of looking forward to future events. For Christian readers looking back, we see that the rebirth of the nations worked out in Zion became possible and real through the climactic events of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 87 in the New Testament. There are no direct citations from or allusions to Psalm 87 in the New Testament. But the image of the nations’ finding new citizenship and entering the family of God through climactic events in Zion obviously echoes strongly with the passion narratives in the Gospels and with the events of Pentecost (and all that followed) in the book of Acts. Truly, Jerusalem lay at the heart of all the historical events that led to the rebirth of the nations as the people of God through Christ Jesus and to the spread of the good news of Yahweh’s salvation throughout the earth.
Contemporary Significance
INCLUSION. One of the great challenges of Psalm 87 for its original hearers would have been the image of Israel’s enemies somehow being reborn as the people of God. Egypt and Babylon were synonymous with Israel’s two great enslavements and all the horrors and brutality that went with them.13
It would have been no easy thing for those who had returned from exile to consider accepting Babylonians as worshiping brothers in Zion, especially since Jerusalem was the site of so much suffering at the hands of the Babylonians. The challenge of inclusion would have been real and difficult. The thought of including in worship in the second temple those who had destroyed the first temple (Ps 74), killed the Hebrews’ forefathers (Ps 79), and brutally murdered their ancestors’ children (Ps 137) would have been far from appealing. The image of future inclusion would not have been an easy one to accept.
The Christian church today faces a similar challenge on two levels. First, persecution is still real for Christians in many parts of the world, and while we certainly pray for justice, we must also pray for transformation of hearts and incorporation into the body of Christ’s people. Those who do not experience the reality of persecution cannot really imagine how difficult this act must be—but it is part of the challenge of Ps 87. We must pray that our enemies and oppressors (on whatever level they might be) come to know God and become part of the community of faith—our very own communities of faith. The history of the church is littered with examples of persecutors-turned-evangelists—from the apostle Paul right down to the present day. So, while we do pray for peace, justice, and the cessation of violence against our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should also pray that the enemies of God’s people become members of his worshiping family.
There is, however, a second and perhaps more prevalent challenge of inclusion that faces the church today, namely, the challenge of including in our church families those who are very different from us. In an increasingly secularized, postmodern world, the general standards of people in the world around us will inevitably differ greatly from the standards we would profess and adhere to based on Scripture. So, we face an ever-increasing challenge in terms of incorporation, but the onus is on those of us in the church to make newcomers and seekers feel welcomed and loved despite the differences that may exist between us. It is of particular importance that we do not place unrealistic expectations on those who have yet to accept Christ. The church has often been guilty of placing prerequisites on people who desire to find out more about Jesus but who have not yet come to faith in him. We expect people coming into the church to speak and behave as we do. This expectation, however, is often a barrier to inclusion within the community of faith.
People who are not yet followers of Christ but who desire to find out more about him may well use language that we find unpalatable, or may be living with a partner, or may do recreational drugs, or engage in a whole host of behaviors we find objectionable. Often an important part of one’s journey to faith is the acceptance and friendship of those who are in the Christian community of faith. Very often friendship and hospitality make the love of Christ become real in the heart of a seeker. So, it is of vital importance that our Christian communities are welcoming and inclusive even toward those whose ethical standards—at this point in their journey—are very different from our own. Our first responsibility is to include. Then, as people come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, they will become increasingly aware of his standards as they are discipled in the way of Lord. But we should never make the standards a prerequisite for inclusion. Instead, our local communities of faith should be shaped by the offer friendship and hospitality to all those seeking to know more about the message of the gospel.
Original Meaning
The Centrality of Zion (87:1–3)
SOME OF THE ORIGINAL HEBREW and some of the sentence structures are quite awkward in this psalm, thus making it difficult to translate. But the opening verses refer to the divine possession of Zion as the place of his delight.
He has founded his city on the holy mountain. The opening stanza is one of the awkward verses in this composition. It is unusually brief, being only a single line, and its content is slightly oblique. Literally, the Hebrew reads, “His foundation is among the holy hills.”2
Although the designation of Zion as being among the holy hills (plural) is slightly unusual (cf. Ps 133:3, which also uses the plural), the essential meaning of Psalm 87:1 is clear: Zion is founded by God as a place of special holiness, as becomes explicit in the following verse. Yahweh has made it so. Zion’s significance is not an accident of geography or the result of David’s geo-political machinations (2 Sam 5). The city’s greatness is derived from the fact that it is founded by God. It is, as far as the psalmist is concerned, the special place of God’s choice and therefore unique among the cities of the earth. The plurality of the holy hills is probably not a reference to Zion as part of a mountain range but likely implies the uniqueness of Zion among the other mountain sanctuaries of the ancient Near East that were claimed to be major seats of worship (cf. Ps 48:1–3).3
Jerusalem is unique because it is the sanctuary founded by Yahweh. Its origin is what gives it unique importance.
The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The implication of Psalm 87:2 is that Zion bears unique significance even within Israel as a whole. There is a sense in which the whole of the promised land is holy and, therefore, significant. But this significance is especially true of Jerusalem, for it is where the temple represents the particular dwelling place of God on earth. The “gates of Zion” can serve as an idiom for the city as a whole or, more specifically, for the people within the city (see Ps 78:68; Isa 14:31–32). “For Zion, that also personifies all his worshippers, the Lord has the utmost love and devotion.”4
Normally, gates are to be thought of as significant for their defensive purpose—they can be locked to keep out every threat. Often in the Old Testament it is the nations who were kept at bay by the gates of Zion (see Lam 2:9 regarding the effects of the fall of the gates). The irony of Psalm 87 is that the gates of Zion, so loved by Yahweh, are wide open and welcome the nations into the heart of the city!
Glorious things are said of you, city of God. The singer—probably a temple prophet—concludes this introductory celebration of Zion’s exalted status by addressing the personified city itself. Great things are spoken of Jerusalem, and the implication is that this positive testimony is the result of Jerusalem’s being the “city of God.” Zion’s importance is not the result of political or military greatness or of size or influence. Jerusalem is important because it lies at the very heart of God’s plan for the earth. It is founded by him and is the object of his love; thus it is the recipient of the “glorious things” that are about to be spoken in the prophetic oracle of verses 4–7.
Bridging Contexts
ZION IN THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION. Psalm 87 is another example of a Zion psalm, as are Psalms 46, 48, and 84 (discussed above). Each of these songs holds Jerusalem in high regard—to an extent, in fact, that is almost mythical in tone. They each celebrate Zion’s exalted status. Some point to her military impenetrability as a fortress or refuge. Most celebrate the worship of Yahweh practiced in the temple city. But one thing is common to most of the Zion psalms, namely, that the city of God is central to Yahweh’s plans for and governance of the whole earth. In the case of Psalm 87, Zion’s significance is painted in terms of love and inclusion. The gates of the city—that is, its inhabitants (v. 2)—are loved by God. The city is the focus of his affection and blessing more than any other place, even other places in Israel. But that love is inclusive rather than exclusive. So many of the tabernacle/temple rituals outlined in Leviticus and elsewhere are actually about exclusion. Such is the amazing holiness of Yahweh that only through cleansing sacrifice could one approach the presence of God. All sorts of issues, both moral (sin of any type) and practical (e.g., the eating of shellfish [Deut 14:10]), excluded one from entering the holy presence of God Almighty. But the tone of Psalm 87 is quite the opposite—it is all about inclusion. It is about the people who were normally excluded from worship becoming part of the worshiping family of God. As so often in the Psalter, Zion is central to that act of inclusion. It is there that the nations receive their adoption as citizens of a new kingdom. The peoples are declared to have been born there (vv. 4, 6). Zion is the necessary and unique place of that rebirth and new citizenship.
It is entirely understandable that the early church began to read the significance of Zion in terms of the events that occurred in the city through the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It was in Zion that Jesus overturned the money lenders’ tables in the temple. It was in the courts of the same complex of buildings that he taught the people, debated with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, walked and talked with the disciples, people watched and used the events he saw as teaching illustrations. It was to Jerusalem that Jesus led his disciples with great purpose and determination, even though he knew that the great city would also be the place of his death. It was outside the city walls that he was nailed to a tree and killed—and outside the walls of Jerusalem that the grave could not hold him. It was in that selfsame city that the church of Christ was born and began to grow. So, it is not surprising that Christians of the early centuries would view the significance of the Zion psalms in terms of the Christ event.
But clearly the Zion psalms meant something to the people of God throughout the generations before the coming of Christ. Where did that meaning lie when the reality of Jerusalem’s history fell far short of the exalted status celebrated in these poems?
To understand the meaning of the Zion psalms for the original readers of the Psalter, we must consider these poems in the light of their history of appropriation. Some of the poems celebrating Zion probably date from the time of Kings David and Solomon, when Israel was a relatively major player on the stage of the ancient Near East, and these psalms would have borne some similarity to the transnational, political reality of the day. Jerusalem was the capital of the Davidic nation, and that nation was not to be trifled with. So, the significance of Zion would be read in the light the political and military realities of the day. But even for a reader in the days of David and Solomon there would still have been an element of dissonance—Jerusalem was great . . . but the nations were not flocking there by the thousands, nor was it the seat of rule over all the countries of the earth, as implied in Psalm 2. So even for readers of the Zion psalms during the height of Jerusalem’s significance, there would have been a degree of surprise at the highly effusive language used to describe the significance of the city.
This surprise would reach the realms of disbelief in the historical period that followed the death of Solomon and the division of Israel. For believers singing the Zion psalms at that time, the theology and imagery of these poems would have stood in marked contrast to the geopolitical reality of the day. Effectively, Judah was a bit-part player on the world stage and entirely dominated by superpowers to the south (Egypt) and north (Assyria, then Babylon). The songs that celebrate the impregnability of Zion would have sounded hollow in the light of the military dominance of Israel’s and Judah’s near neighbors. How then would believers in the days after the death of Solomon but before the exile read psalms such as Psalm 87? It seems clear that they would have read these psalms with an attitude of future expectation. The Zion psalms did not resonate with the Hebrews’ current experience, so the people would have read them in the belief that Zion’s significance would rise again at some point in the future.
This proleptic rereading would become all the more common in the years following the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Ideas regarding the impregnability of the city and Yahweh’s rule over the whole world from Jerusalem bore no similarity to Zion’s historical and political reality; therefore, the community of faith would have read these psalms with a forward-looking attitude of mind. The Zion psalms bore little resemblance to the Hebrews’ present reality, so they came to be read with a sense of future expectation.11
Thus it is not surprising that early Christian readers of these poems read them as descriptive of the life and events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth played out in the city of Jerusalem. While the Zion psalms may not originally have been “about Jesus,” all the psalms lend themselves to reinterpretation by each succeeding generation, and, even at the height of Zion’s fame, Psalm 87 would probably have been read by Old Testament believers as referring to future climactic events through which Yahweh would transform the world.12
Certainly in later years Psalm 87—which is probably postexilic in origin—would have been read with a sense of looking forward to future events. For Christian readers looking back, we see that the rebirth of the nations worked out in Zion became possible and real through the climactic events of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 87 in the New Testament. There are no direct citations from or allusions to Psalm 87 in the New Testament. But the image of the nations’ finding new citizenship and entering the family of God through climactic events in Zion obviously echoes strongly with the passion narratives in the Gospels and with the events of Pentecost (and all that followed) in the book of Acts. Truly, Jerusalem lay at the heart of all the historical events that led to the rebirth of the nations as the people of God through Christ Jesus and to the spread of the good news of Yahweh’s salvation throughout the earth.
Contemporary Significance
INCLUSION. One of the great challenges of Psalm 87 for its original hearers would have been the image of Israel’s enemies somehow being reborn as the people of God. Egypt and Babylon were synonymous with Israel’s two great enslavements and all the horrors and brutality that went with them.13
It would have been no easy thing for those who had returned from exile to consider accepting Babylonians as worshiping brothers in Zion, especially since Jerusalem was the site of so much suffering at the hands of the Babylonians. The challenge of inclusion would have been real and difficult. The thought of including in worship in the second temple those who had destroyed the first temple (Ps 74), killed the Hebrews’ forefathers (Ps 79), and brutally murdered their ancestors’ children (Ps 137) would have been far from appealing. The image of future inclusion would not have been an easy one to accept.
The Christian church today faces a similar challenge on two levels. First, persecution is still real for Christians in many parts of the world, and while we certainly pray for justice, we must also pray for transformation of hearts and incorporation into the body of Christ’s people. Those who do not experience the reality of persecution cannot really imagine how difficult this act must be—but it is part of the challenge of Ps 87. We must pray that our enemies and oppressors (on whatever level they might be) come to know God and become part of the community of faith—our very own communities of faith. The history of the church is littered with examples of persecutors-turned-evangelists—from the apostle Paul right down to the present day. So, while we do pray for peace, justice, and the cessation of violence against our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should also pray that the enemies of God’s people become members of his worshiping family.
There is, however, a second and perhaps more prevalent challenge of inclusion that faces the church today, namely, the challenge of including in our church families those who are very different from us. In an increasingly secularized, postmodern world, the general standards of people in the world around us will inevitably differ greatly from the standards we would profess and adhere to based on Scripture. So, we face an ever-increasing challenge in terms of incorporation, but the onus is on those of us in the church to make newcomers and seekers feel welcomed and loved despite the differences that may exist between us. It is of particular importance that we do not place unrealistic expectations on those who have yet to accept Christ. The church has often been guilty of placing prerequisites on people who desire to find out more about Jesus but who have not yet come to faith in him. We expect people coming into the church to speak and behave as we do. This expectation, however, is often a barrier to inclusion within the community of faith.
People who are not yet followers of Christ but who desire to find out more about him may well use language that we find unpalatable, or may be living with a partner, or may do recreational drugs, or engage in a whole host of behaviors we find objectionable. Often an important part of one’s journey to faith is the acceptance and friendship of those who are in the Christian community of faith. Very often friendship and hospitality make the love of Christ become real in the heart of a seeker. So, it is of vital importance that our Christian communities are welcoming and inclusive even toward those whose ethical standards—at this point in their journey—are very different from our own. Our first responsibility is to include. Then, as people come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, they will become increasingly aware of his standards as they are discipled in the way of Lord. But we should never make the standards a prerequisite for inclusion. Instead, our local communities of faith should be shaped by the offer friendship and hospitality to all those seeking to know more about the message of the gospel.
Original Meaning
The Rebirth of the Nations in Zion (87:4–7)
THE FOLLOWING VERSES CONSTITUTE the “glorious things” that are spoken of Zion in a prophetic oracle. The oracle begins with God’s proclamation regarding Zion and is interspersed with linking statements from the prophetic speaker.
I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Remarkably, God’s proclamation of Zion’s greatness begins with the inclusion of Israel’s archenemies among those who acknowledge (lit., “know,” with all the relational overtones of the Hebrew verb yada‘) him. Rahab—the chaos monster of the sea who opposes Yahweh—is frequently used as a metaphor for Egypt (see Ps 89:10; Isa 30:7).5
God now numbers the two great superpowers that held his people in exile (Egypt prior to the exodus and Babylon following the fall of Jerusalem) as part of his community. There are two ways to read the phrase “among those who acknowledge me.” The Hebrew preposition le can mean “among” (as with the NIV and other translations) but is more commonly translated “to.” So, the declaration of Psalm 87:4 can be the public proclamation that Egypt and Babylon are now numbered among God’s people. Alternatively, the verse could be read as a declaration to Israel about these two nations, namely, that Israel should view them also as Yahweh’s nations.6
Whichever way we read the preposition, the meaning is clear: Israel’s enemies are included in the family of God’s people!
The idea of Yahweh’s “recording” of Egypt and Babylon as belonging among his peoples is also an interesting and unusual image and receives fuller discussion in the comments on verse 6 below.
The inclusion of Philistia, Tyre, and Cush along with Egypt and Babylon in the list of God’s peoples gives us further insight into the extent of the inclusiveness of the divine kingdom. Philistia and Tyre are near neighbors to Israel (to the south and north, respectively), whereas Cush (modern-day Sudan/Ethiopia) represents the farthest reaches of the known world. The implication seems to be that this eschatological image of the nations as being gathered into the worshiping community of God’s people applies not only to Israel’s great enemies but also to all nations both near and far.
This one was born in Zion. The concluding statement of verse 4 clearly implies that a sense of belonging is extended to nations outside Israel. By accident of birth their origin may lay elsewhere. But all those who respond to the call to join Israel in the worship of Yahweh will be viewed as though they were born in Jerusalem and thus bear all the rights and privileges of any member of the covenant community.7
This one and that one were born in her. The Hebrew of verse 5 is awkward. More literally, the Hebrew reads, “A man and a man are born in her,” in echo of the statements in verses 4 and 6: “This one was born in her.” (The NIV makes the object explicit by naming Zion in these verses.) As mentioned above, the statements imply that some sort of honorary citizenship of Jerusalem—and by extension, Israel—is proffered to all those who acknowledge the kingship of God (cf. Ps 86:8–11). Robert Alter comments, “The wording is certainly cryptic but it might convey a universalist message about Jerusalem. Though as a biographical fact every person is born in his or her native place in the surrounding region, all who come up to Zion to acclaim God’s kingship there are considered to be born in Zion.”8
And the Most High himself will establish her. As with Psalm 87:1, the significance of the temple city, Jerusalem, is neither ethnic nor political—it is derived from divine choice. Yahweh is the great God and King, and he both founded and continues to establish Zion (v. 5). The strength and significance of Zion is based on Yahweh’s choice of the city as the epicenter for the outworking of his purposes for humanity. Obviously, from the perspective of biblical theology, this choice comes to make much more sense in the light of the New Testament. Throughout many centuries of Israel’s existence there would be a strong degree of dissonance whenever the Zion psalms were read, for the elevated view of the city presented in Psalms 46, 48, 87, and others did not match the historical reality of Jerusalem’s role within the world order. Yet Jerusalem was the city chosen by Yahweh, and poems such as Psalm 87 were constant reminders to God’s people that the city was still central to his purposes, regardless of how things appeared on the broader world stage.9
The Lord will write in the register of the peoples. Further elaborating the imagery of verse 4a is this unusual image of Yahweh as clerk or record keeper. God himself enters these nations in his list of citizens! Again, the idea of a “register of the peoples” is unusual but is probably to be associated with the lists of those who belonged to the tribes of Israel. The nations of peoples written in the register were, therefore, entitled to enter the tabernacle/temple to worship God (e.g., see Num 1–3; Exod 32:32; Ezek 13:9). Psalm 87:6 makes it quite clear that this record is a written one; that it is so emphasizes the legally binding nature of this invitation to a new citizenship. Just as someone who changes his or her citizenship today receives a certificate or a new passport, so also Yahweh’s register constitutes a legal document affirming that these nations are included within the worshiping community.10
“All my fountains are in you.” In verse 7 we again see Hebrew that is quite difficult to translate. First, it is not clear whether the verse refers to people who are “singing and dancing” or “singing and making music,” so both options are reflected in the modern English translations. Second, it is not absolutely clear how the second line of verse 7 relates to the first line. Whether we are to understand the people as singing and dancing or singing and making music makes little difference in the end—the image is clearly that the people are celebrating their newfound citizenship and the privileges that go with it. The imagery pictures the masses of people now added to the ranks of Israel’s numbers as joining in exuberant celebration of their inclusion in the family of God. The relationship between the two lines of verse 7 is perhaps slightly less obvious, but the second line of the verse is probably meant to be read as a statement of celebration voicing the people’s song (as with the NIV and other translations). The “you” of the statement “All my fountains are in you” clearly refers to Zion, and the imagery of one’s fountains or wellsprings as being in the city probably refers to Jerusalem as being the source of life or the heartbeat of the nations. In the arid landscape of the ancient Near East (today’s Middle East), the source of water was the source of life, so the nations celebrate the new life they have found inside the city by way of their new citizenship.
Psalm 87 provides readers with this rich image of the nations’ being reborn into the family of Yahweh so that they may become full-fledged members of the worshiping community of faith. It is a rich eschatological image that would be very different from the reality of Jerusalem’s historical experience. Yahweh’s city was often subjected to hardship at the hands of the nations listed in this psalm, but the psalmist points to a future reality—ordained and brought into being by Yahweh himself—in which these countries will ultimately become part of God’s people.
Bridging Contexts
ZION IN THE HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION. Psalm 87 is another example of a Zion psalm, as are Psalms 46, 48, and 84 (discussed above). Each of these songs holds Jerusalem in high regard—to an extent, in fact, that is almost mythical in tone. They each celebrate Zion’s exalted status. Some point to her military impenetrability as a fortress or refuge. Most celebrate the worship of Yahweh practiced in the temple city. But one thing is common to most of the Zion psalms, namely, that the city of God is central to Yahweh’s plans for and governance of the whole earth. In the case of Psalm 87, Zion’s significance is painted in terms of love and inclusion. The gates of the city—that is, its inhabitants (v. 2)—are loved by God. The city is the focus of his affection and blessing more than any other place, even other places in Israel. But that love is inclusive rather than exclusive. So many of the tabernacle/temple rituals outlined in Leviticus and elsewhere are actually about exclusion. Such is the amazing holiness of Yahweh that only through cleansing sacrifice could one approach the presence of God. All sorts of issues, both moral (sin of any type) and practical (e.g., the eating of shellfish [Deut 14:10]), excluded one from entering the holy presence of God Almighty. But the tone of Psalm 87 is quite the opposite—it is all about inclusion. It is about the people who were normally excluded from worship becoming part of the worshiping family of God. As so often in the Psalter, Zion is central to that act of inclusion. It is there that the nations receive their adoption as citizens of a new kingdom. The peoples are declared to have been born there (vv. 4, 6). Zion is the necessary and unique place of that rebirth and new citizenship.
It is entirely understandable that the early church began to read the significance of Zion in terms of the events that occurred in the city through the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It was in Zion that Jesus overturned the money lenders’ tables in the temple. It was in the courts of the same complex of buildings that he taught the people, debated with the Pharisees and teachers of the law, walked and talked with the disciples, people watched and used the events he saw as teaching illustrations. It was to Jerusalem that Jesus led his disciples with great purpose and determination, even though he knew that the great city would also be the place of his death. It was outside the city walls that he was nailed to a tree and killed—and outside the walls of Jerusalem that the grave could not hold him. It was in that selfsame city that the church of Christ was born and began to grow. So, it is not surprising that Christians of the early centuries would view the significance of the Zion psalms in terms of the Christ event.
But clearly the Zion psalms meant something to the people of God throughout the generations before the coming of Christ. Where did that meaning lie when the reality of Jerusalem’s history fell far short of the exalted status celebrated in these poems?
To understand the meaning of the Zion psalms for the original readers of the Psalter, we must consider these poems in the light of their history of appropriation. Some of the poems celebrating Zion probably date from the time of Kings David and Solomon, when Israel was a relatively major player on the stage of the ancient Near East, and these psalms would have borne some similarity to the transnational, political reality of the day. Jerusalem was the capital of the Davidic nation, and that nation was not to be trifled with. So, the significance of Zion would be read in the light the political and military realities of the day. But even for a reader in the days of David and Solomon there would still have been an element of dissonance—Jerusalem was great . . . but the nations were not flocking there by the thousands, nor was it the seat of rule over all the countries of the earth, as implied in Psalm 2. So even for readers of the Zion psalms during the height of Jerusalem’s significance, there would have been a degree of surprise at the highly effusive language used to describe the significance of the city.
This surprise would reach the realms of disbelief in the historical period that followed the death of Solomon and the division of Israel. For believers singing the Zion psalms at that time, the theology and imagery of these poems would have stood in marked contrast to the geopolitical reality of the day. Effectively, Judah was a bit-part player on the world stage and entirely dominated by superpowers to the south (Egypt) and north (Assyria, then Babylon). The songs that celebrate the impregnability of Zion would have sounded hollow in the light of the military dominance of Israel’s and Judah’s near neighbors. How then would believers in the days after the death of Solomon but before the exile read psalms such as Psalm 87? It seems clear that they would have read these psalms with an attitude of future expectation. The Zion psalms did not resonate with the Hebrews’ current experience, so the people would have read them in the belief that Zion’s significance would rise again at some point in the future.
This proleptic rereading would become all the more common in the years following the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Ideas regarding the impregnability of the city and Yahweh’s rule over the whole world from Jerusalem bore no similarity to Zion’s historical and political reality; therefore, the community of faith would have read these psalms with a forward-looking attitude of mind. The Zion psalms bore little resemblance to the Hebrews’ present reality, so they came to be read with a sense of future expectation.11
Thus it is not surprising that early Christian readers of these poems read them as descriptive of the life and events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth played out in the city of Jerusalem. While the Zion psalms may not originally have been “about Jesus,” all the psalms lend themselves to reinterpretation by each succeeding generation, and, even at the height of Zion’s fame, Psalm 87 would probably have been read by Old Testament believers as referring to future climactic events through which Yahweh would transform the world.12
Certainly in later years Psalm 87—which is probably postexilic in origin—would have been read with a sense of looking forward to future events. For Christian readers looking back, we see that the rebirth of the nations worked out in Zion became possible and real through the climactic events of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 87 in the New Testament. There are no direct citations from or allusions to Psalm 87 in the New Testament. But the image of the nations’ finding new citizenship and entering the family of God through climactic events in Zion obviously echoes strongly with the passion narratives in the Gospels and with the events of Pentecost (and all that followed) in the book of Acts. Truly, Jerusalem lay at the heart of all the historical events that led to the rebirth of the nations as the people of God through Christ Jesus and to the spread of the good news of Yahweh’s salvation throughout the earth.
Contemporary Significance
INCLUSION. One of the great challenges of Psalm 87 for its original hearers would have been the image of Israel’s enemies somehow being reborn as the people of God. Egypt and Babylon were synonymous with Israel’s two great enslavements and all the horrors and brutality that went with them.13
It would have been no easy thing for those who had returned from exile to consider accepting Babylonians as worshiping brothers in Zion, especially since Jerusalem was the site of so much suffering at the hands of the Babylonians. The challenge of inclusion would have been real and difficult. The thought of including in worship in the second temple those who had destroyed the first temple (Ps 74), killed the Hebrews’ forefathers (Ps 79), and brutally murdered their ancestors’ children (Ps 137) would have been far from appealing. The image of future inclusion would not have been an easy one to accept.
The Christian church today faces a similar challenge on two levels. First, persecution is still real for Christians in many parts of the world, and while we certainly pray for justice, we must also pray for transformation of hearts and incorporation into the body of Christ’s people. Those who do not experience the reality of persecution cannot really imagine how difficult this act must be—but it is part of the challenge of Ps 87. We must pray that our enemies and oppressors (on whatever level they might be) come to know God and become part of the community of faith—our very own communities of faith. The history of the church is littered with examples of persecutors-turned-evangelists—from the apostle Paul right down to the present day. So, while we do pray for peace, justice, and the cessation of violence against our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should also pray that the enemies of God’s people become members of his worshiping family.
There is, however, a second and perhaps more prevalent challenge of inclusion that faces the church today, namely, the challenge of including in our church families those who are very different from us. In an increasingly secularized, postmodern world, the general standards of people in the world around us will inevitably differ greatly from the standards we would profess and adhere to based on Scripture. So, we face an ever-increasing challenge in terms of incorporation, but the onus is on those of us in the church to make newcomers and seekers feel welcomed and loved despite the differences that may exist between us. It is of particular importance that we do not place unrealistic expectations on those who have yet to accept Christ. The church has often been guilty of placing prerequisites on people who desire to find out more about Jesus but who have not yet come to faith in him. We expect people coming into the church to speak and behave as we do. This expectation, however, is often a barrier to inclusion within the community of faith.
People who are not yet followers of Christ but who desire to find out more about him may well use language that we find unpalatable, or may be living with a partner, or may do recreational drugs, or engage in a whole host of behaviors we find objectionable. Often an important part of one’s journey to faith is the acceptance and friendship of those who are in the Christian community of faith. Very often friendship and hospitality make the love of Christ become real in the heart of a seeker. So, it is of vital importance that our Christian communities are welcoming and inclusive even toward those whose ethical standards—at this point in their journey—are very different from our own. Our first responsibility is to include. Then, as people come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, they will become increasingly aware of his standards as they are discipled in the way of Lord. But we should never make the standards a prerequisite for inclusion. Instead, our local communities of faith should be shaped by the offer friendship and hospitality to all those seeking to know more about the message of the gospel.
